News Test Track to be reimagined

[britain]

If I had to guess I’d say it simply needed a refresh, WDI thought about how ugly and dated a lot of the recent Test Track additions had become, and they felt like the most timeless move would be to return to the simplicity of WoM’s aesthetic wherever possible. Clean lines, sets pretending to be outdoor locations, straight forward modernism, etc.

It’s still the Test Track concept, just redressed with a little more class.

I predict that’s all there is to it.

 

[Bill in Atlanta]

World of Motion was EPCOT's second most popular attraction in the early 90s, only behind Spaceship Earth (which makes sense considering it was the only attraction you *had* to walk past when visiting the park back then). Part of that is likely because it was the highest capacity thing at EPCOT and rarely had a wait, but yes, it was very popular.

I would've had Horizons, Figment, and Maelstrom ahead of WOM in terms of popularity, personally. But, it's been a long time and my memory has gotten a bit fuzzy!

 

[Sneaky]

Disney will do that to you...recent track record and all...

Entirely different administration. If you get in your head that everything will be bad, like some user do here, then you will end up not liking anything. Even if it could be bad, it’s better to be optimistic than y. Being negative all the time robs you of enjoying anything about this hobby. If I’m being honest, if you don’t enjoy anything Disney does anymore, than maybe try taking a break from the parks. And yes, we should expect greater, but the doom is a bit too much here.

 

[Sneaky]

Entirely different administration. If you get in your head that everything will be bad, like some user do here, then you will end up not liking anything. Even if it could be bad, it’s better to be optimistic than y. Being negative all the time robs you of enjoying anything about this hobby. If I’m being honest, if you don’t enjoy anything Disney does anymore, than maybe try taking a break from the parks. And yes, we should expect greater, but the doom is a bit too much here.

I also often feel we as fans romanticize the past a bit much. We remember them better than they were.

 

[Andrew C]

if you don’t enjoy anything Disney does anymore, than maybe try taking a break from the parks

Uhh. Yeah. That’s occurring already.

If you get in your head that everything will be bad,

It’s not in my head. It’s the reality of the product.

 

[CoasterFan27]

I also often feel we as fans romanticize the past a bit much. We remember them better than they were.

Imagine some of the peeps on here commenting on the opening day Let alone the average ride experience in say 1980.

It's like dining in a michelin star restaurant every day, eventually you're going to get fed up of it and complain the chef's having a bad day, the staff were snippy one day, that's what happens when people get obsessed about a single thing and lose all perspective... Unfortunately those same people are most likely to lack any kind of personal introspection into their patterns of behaviour.

 

[UNCgolf]

I'd personally say that WoM doesn't get talked about as much because test track was a much more solid replacement than other attractions in future world (Imagination, Horizons, etc).

I think that's definitely a part of it.

World of Motion was better than Test Track 1.0, but Test Track 1.0 was still a very good ride. The Imagination replacement was a tremendous downgrade, and Mission: Space, while an interesting concept, was never as good or popular as Horizons.

 

[DreamfinderGuy]

Was Horizons third? Or Imagination

Imagination was a close third. Horizons, depending on whether you consider popularity to be the amount of demand or the total percent of park guests visiting, was either fifth or sixth (behind Living Seas and Body Wars).

I feel like if there’s heavy WoM nostalgia happening, it’s because of the Imagineers themselves being obsessed with classic EPCOT. You have to imagine that the amount of park guests with nostalgia for WoM is very very, very low, and it’s not a cult-following ride like JII.

I think this is worth emphasizing as well. Just because WoM was popular 30 years ago does not mean it has a cult following today. Plenty of people with fond memories maybe, but it doesn't get looked back on like JII or Horizons.

I would've had Horizons, Figment, and Maelstrom ahead of WOM in terms of popularity, personally. But, it's been a long time and my memory has gotten a bit fuzzy!

I'm going purely by hard numbers. It may shock you to learn that Maelstrom was actually less popular than the majority of the Future World attractions!

 

[Chef idea Mickey`=]

Imagine some of the peeps on here commenting on the opening day Let alone the average ride experience in say 1980.

I wasn't there in the 80's or the opening but say imagining if I were I don't think just my guess belief I would see what was there then as different to say the late 90's or 2009 with Future World. I've not experienced the original JII so that in itself maybe an exception but at that time I don't know if I be raving about it because I'm not a fan fan of Figment but who knows it doesn’t mean I wouldn't appreciate everything's original conception! Aside World Showcase and Spaceship Earth I don't know how I would feel about Epcot probably on awe with just smaller things like the monorail being an identity to the park itself. Also I don't think Communicore was better than Innovention's I have no experience of either except I was at Epcot while Innovention's existed!

 

[Sneaky]

Imagine some of the peeps on here commenting on the opening day Let alone the average ride experience in say 1980.

Yes. I agree. We all think it was so different back in the day, but even back then similar things, maybe on a smaller scale, were happening with ip replacing original things (hi star tours replacing inner space) and abandoned spaces being left to rot (hi 20,000 leauges under the sea!). I think we all take for granted all the modern things we have at the parks now, including new attractions. We all need to be more appreciative of what we have that’s good today instead of what we lost that was good.

What we want is often at odds with what the guests want. You can say “guests would like this and this if they kept it up” but they didn’t, and guests unfortunately clamoring for the alot of the defunct rides and other things (like educational Epcot) we miss. People want characters they know. I disagree with the sentiment it should be only that, but that’s not in my control. It pains me to say this as an Epcot nerd, but we all need to be more accepting to change, even if it’s hard for us. We need to start swimming or we’ll sink as a fandom. Just as they did in the Eisner era, the times are-a changing.

No communicore hall, harmoniUS, mission space, and imagination, you do not count

 

[V_L_Raptor]

I wasn’t alive for World of Motion and have no doubts it was great. But not making the transportation pavilion a thrill ride from the beginning was a wild choice. Maybe the technology just wasn’t there yet…

One early concept for the ride had just such a thing, built alongside the dark ride we know and love.

 

[Mickeynerd17]

The only thing we have in common in Luminous is our voices and our heartbeat. We come together as one, no spirit or optimism of We Go On, Promise, "Hope!"

I'd say those are related, but IROE presented a much deeper understanding of those themes while luminous is more surface-level.

Doesn't mean surface level is bad. I very much like to pull complex meaning out of media I am consuming, so Luminous doesn't appeal to me as much as IROE did.

 

[UNCgolf]

Imagination was a close third. Horizons, depending on whether you consider popularity to be the amount of demand or the total percent of park guests visiting, was either fifth or sixth (behind Living Seas and Body Wars).

I think this is worth emphasizing as well. Just because WoM was popular 30 years ago does not mean it has a cult following today. Plenty of people with fond memories maybe, but it doesn't get looked back on like JII or Horizons.

I'm going purely by hard numbers. It may shock you to learn that Maelstrom was actually less popular than the majority of the Future World attractions!View attachment 818882

Look at those show times.

How great would it be if Disney had a park like that now? Just full of attractions that lasted longer than 10 minutes.

 

[ChrisFL]

I think this is worth emphasizing as well. Just because WoM was popular 30 years ago does not mean it has a cult following today. Plenty of people with fond memories maybe, but it doesn't get looked back on like JII or Horizons.

The problem with WoM is that it felt like an "also ran" compared to the other dark rides and felt very similar in places to Spaceship Earth, but a more whimsical take on things. The advantage it had IMO was the speed tunnel sections, but nothing too crazy beyond that made it stand out.